Biology and its recontextualisation in the school curriculum : a comparative analysis of post-apartheid South African life sciences curricula.

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Abstract

This study explored the way biological knowledge is transformed when it
moves from its disciplinary form to a high school biology curriculum, and how
this occurred in successive versions of the life sciences curriculum
implemented in post-apartheid South Africa. Bernstein’s (1996, 1999)
conceptualisation of biology as an hierarchical knowledge structure, the
recontextualisation of knowledge, and the implications for social justice
formed the theoretical framework to the study, as did Aikenhead’s (2006)
distinction between traditional and humanistic approaches to science
education, and Schmidt, Wang and McKnight’s (2005) concept of curriculum
coherence. Firstly, I attempted to elicit core concepts and conceptual organisation in
biology from the writings of the distinguished biologist Ernst Mayr, two
foundational biology textbooks, and interviews with two professors of biology.
Seven concepts emerged: the cell, inheritance, evolution, interaction,
regulation, energy flow and diversity, which I arranged in a hierarchy
according to Mayr’s “three big questions”, “what?”, “how?” and “why?”. The
theory of evolution was highlighted as the key integrating principle of the
discipline. Secondly, I considered biology in the school curriculum by means of a
literature review and synthesis of the changing goals of a school science
education. Five broad categories of objectives were derived: knowledge,
skills, applications, attitudes and values , and science as a human enterprise.
Aikenhead’s (2006) terminology captured the shifts in emphases of these
objectives over time.Thirdly, I analysed the stated objectives and content specifications of the
three most recent versions of the South African life sciences curricula – the
Interim Core Syllabus (ICS), the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and
the new NCS. The NCS represented a dramatic swing away from the
traditional approach of the ICS, while the new NCS reverts to a more
traditional approach, though with more humanistic content than in the ICS.
Both the ICS and t he NCS were found to be deficient in one of the three key
conceptual areas of biology. The conceptual progression of the material is
strongest in the new NCS, and weakest in the original NCS. The conclusion
was drawn that, of the different curricula, the new NCS has the greatest
potential to induct South African learners into the hierarchical structure of
biology, and represents a positive contribution to the goal of transforming
education in South Africa.